Motorola Droid 3: Your launch day guide

By JR Raphael (@jr_raphael)

Grab a cigar, gang: The latest member of Verizon's Droid family has officially arrived. 

Just as rumors had predicted, Verizon Wireless announced the launch of the Motorola Droid 3 Thursday morning. In short, the phone is everything we expected it to be -- but in case you haven't been following along, here's a quick primer on everything there is to know about the hot new device.

Motorola Droid 3: The Hardware

Make no mistake about it: The Droid 3 is a close sibling to the hugely popular Motorola Droid phone as well as its Droid 2 and Droid 2 Global successors. But this new Droid has some noteworthy improvements over the Droids of the past.

The Droid 3 has a 4-inch, 960-by-540 display -- larger and richer than the 3.7-inch 854-by-480 screen on the previous Droid devices. The Droid 3 has a new keyboard, too, with an added fifth row for numbers.

Inside, the phone packs a dual-core 1GHz processor along with 512MB of RAM, giving it a significant speed boost over its younger brothers. There's an 8MP camera with 1080p HD video capture and a front-facing camera for video chat. The Droid 3 also has an HDMI out-port with HDMI mirroring capabilities.

Motorola Droid 3: The Software

Motorola's Droid 3 runs Android 2.3 (yep, that's Gingerbread) right out of the box. Unlike the first Droid, however, the phone has Motorola's Motoblur skin baked in -- something that may come as a disappointment to original Droid owners looking for another "pure" Google experience.

Blur aside, the Droid 3 ships with Citrix's GoToMeeting and Citrix Receiver software preinstalled. Odds are, it'll have the standard suite of Motorola/Verizon bloatware on-board as well.

Motorola Droid 3: Mobile Data

The Droid 3 is a 3G phone only -- no 4G here, folks. It's also the first phone to launch since Verizon's move away from unlimited data. If you already have a Verizon smartphone with an unlimited plan, you can stay unlimited -- but if you're signing up for a new account, expect to sign up for one of Verizon's new tiered data options.

The Droid 3 is also capable of serving as a mobile hotspot for an additional monthly fee.

Finally, Motorola's latest Droid is a global phone, meaning you can use it for both data and voice in more than 200 countries outside of the U.S.

Motorola Droid 3: Pricing

The Droid 3 is priced at $200 with a new two-year contract. You can grab it online from Verizon starting today; it'll be in stores next Thursday, July 14.

So, to buy or not to buy? That's the question. For some detailed thoughts and analysis, see my next story:

Motorola Droid 3: To buy or not to buy?

Article copyright 2011 JR Raphael. All rights reserved.